BIZARRE AND INACCURATE

Tim Blair

–,
Wednesday,
January,
30,
2013,(12:37pm)

A sister pro-tobacco lobbying organisation and corporate member of ALEC, the Heartland Institute, paid for Senator Bernardi’s accommodation and travel to the US on four separate occasions in 2010 and 2011. The institute recently ran a two-day conference in the US entitled ‘’Can Tobacco Make You Healthier?’’

Predictably, that line won considerable attention. But now the Heartland Institute responds:

Ms. Wright claims The Heartland Institute ‘recently ran a two-day conference in the US entitled “Can Tobacco Make You Healthier?” ‘ This is bizarre, inaccurate, and plainly intended to defame The Heartland Institute. The event she apparently is referring to was a 75-minute workshop titled ‘Can Tobacco Cure Smoking?’ which Heartland helped organize at ALEC’s annual meeting in Salt Lake City last year.

The speaker, Prof. Brad Rodu, is one of the country’s (indeed, the world’s) leading authorities on the use of smokeless tobacco products to encourage smokers to smoke less or stop altogether. Given that message, it would be more accurate to say that Heartland sponsored a seminar on ‘how to stop smoking.’

James of Hong Kong replied to The Old and Unimproved Dave
Wed 30 Jan 13 (02:26pm)

Get ready for another endless round of Fairfax apologies for defamatory slurs. Of course it’s all part of the usual plan to put the slur out there hope it sticks first and foremost in the mind of people then hope the apology will be forgotten as the original slur stays in the mind of all who want to believe it.

It would appear Tim that Ms Wright can indeed write,but can’t ,
( Or more likely ),read! This trait seems to be quite rife these days, with reporters,MP’s and many others failing the three
R’s.Perhaps the follow Gillards lead too much/

As an ex smoker i rarely ‘borrow’ smokes anymore. I did recently and was actually shocked and appalled that the packet was covered in an image of what appeared to be a dead person staring with eyes open. The likes of Ms Roxon are full fledged extremists.

***what appeared to be a dead person staring with eyes open. The likes of Ms Roxon are full fledged extremists***

Mike, that WAS Ms. Roxon. She’s not the life of the Party, let’s put it that way.

I think Jessica Wright, the poor thing was fed this tripe and being not a little gullible, swallowed it completely. Next week from Jess – how Tony Abbott ate a baby for a bet, as related to her by a drunk in a pub one night.

First, I have never been a smoker. But like many Australians I have sympathy for the underdog, the harrassed and the put upon. Smokers certainly come into that category.

There are 2 problems with smoking. Nicotine is highly addictive, and once addicted difficult to break. But it is not a mind altering drug. Mood altering, yes, like tea and coffee.

The health problem is in the method of delivery; the smoke from burning tobacco.

The development of “fake cigarettes” available overseas, delivers nicotine without smoke, in a similar rush to that from smoking a cigarette. For smokers, slow release patches apparently do not cut it.
This heartland conference appears to be about these products.

Rather, the problem lies in the nature of politics. As I’ve argued countless times before, it’s much easier to be left-wing than to be right-wing. To be on the left confers a spray-on niceness that alleviates you of all need to behave with any kind of decency or moral responsibility in your daily life because, hey, you vote Labour or Lib Dem or Green and that means you care about the oppressed, the disabled, the poor, the minorities, the bunny rabbits, the kittens in baskets with eyes in cutely different colours a bit like David Bowie’s.

Yes, it takes guts to be a conservative public figure, Cory. Hang in there, mate.